Paris City of Night

Michael Balter 4/07/2009 05:30:00 AM
I'm pretty tied up here in Hyderabad, India, on the second leg of my three-city lecture tour about "What Made Humans Modern?"
 
So for today's post I will plug a new book by my friend and colleague David Downie. The blurbs are from the back cover, but anyone who knows David's writing will want to pick up a copy of this asap.


"A fast-moving, atmospheric thriller. Best to start reading this one early in the evening... unless, that is, you don't mind losing a night's sleep!"
——David Hunt, best-selling author of The Magician's Tale

"Unputdownable——a real page-turner. No one should miss this."
——Anton Gill, author of the world best-selling series The Egyptian Mysteries


Paris is alluring and seductive, but by no means benign, as Jay Grant well knows. Orange alerts make people trigger-happy. Red and black alerts are worse. They transform the City of Light into a hellish City of Night...
Paris City of Night

June 18, 1950: The blurry image of escaping Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann wells up in a CIA darkroom in pre-dawn Paris.

December 26, 2007: Madeleine Adelaïde de Lafayette, celebrated Résistance and Free French hero, former CIA deputy chief of station in Paris, is found dead in her mansion fronting the Eiffel Tower. Few know she was a key player in the misguided Allied effort to fight Communism by smuggling Nazis to freedom. So was William Grant, Madeleine's favorite operative, also recently deceased.

December 28, 2007: As the countdown to New Year's Eve flashes from the top of the Eiffel Tower, vintage photography and Daguerreotype expert Jay Grant, "son of a spook," races to piece together a deadly picture-puzzle. Why were Madeleine and his father William murdered——and whose side is the CIA really on? Someone is trying to kill Jay before he can crack a code embedded on a set of Daguerreotype plates and flush out terrorists plotting to attack Paris. Persuing Jay through the menacingly dark City of Light are a shadowy recycled Cold Warrior, a sexy Homeland Security officer, and his father William's aged, fanatic former colleague, a man whose mission is no longer beating the Commies but battling radical Islam, even if it means destroying parts of the city he loves...

"A wild ride through the dark side of Paris."
——Diane Johnson
Michael Balter

Posted by Michael Balter

I have been a working journalist for more than 40 years, beginning in Los Angeles as an investigative reporter and then in Paris as a travel, food, and science writer. For more than 20 years I have covered anthropology and archaeology writer for Science, Audubon, Scientific American, SAPIENS, and other publications. I have also covered sexual misconduct for The Verge, Scientific American, and others; I write about mental health, especially schizophrenia; and I engage in occasional media criticism. I returned to the USA in October 2017 after 30 years in Paris, and now live in the New York City area, where I currently teach journalism at City College of New York (I previously taught journalism at Boston University and New York University.) For more about me and what I do, copies of my articles, information about my book, and other goodies, please visit MY WEB SITE

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10 Comments

Anonymous said…
Thanks for the recommendation. A political thriller set in Paris? Sounds great. Paris City of Night instead of City of Light. Very clever.
April 7, 2009 at 5:39 AM
Anonymous said…
City of Night... sounds like a Doors song. Anything about the Doors in the thriller?
April 7, 2009 at 5:40 AM
Anonymous said…
Can it be? Is it really possible? A delicious romp through Paris through the stupendous eye of David Downie? Oh, we are blessed. His words are like diamonds, sparkling in a glass of the very finest champagne. Hang on for the ride of your life!

Erica Heller
April 7, 2009 at 7:18 AM
Robert said…
David Downie knows Paris better than anyone, and his prose is as enticing as -- well, Paris, itself. City of Night is a must-read.
April 7, 2009 at 12:06 PM
Jake said…
I read a book he wrote called Paris, Paris Journey into the City of Light. It was great -- nonfiction. I guess he's stuck on the City of Light or City of Night. And yes, it is the Doors, and there is a bunch of stuff about Jim Morrison and how or why he died or was murdered, and a great chase scene in Pere Lachaise cemetery. I'm reading the thing right now and loving it so far.
April 7, 2009 at 12:26 PM
Anne Gilbert said…
This sounds like a book I'd really like to read -- and I don't usually read "thrillers" or many mysteries. It may end up disappointing me, but so what? I'll have read something new -- when I get to it. It's going to end up on my TBR pile, I guess.
Anne G
April 7, 2009 at 6:13 PM
Andrew Hunt said…
Thanks for the recommend, Michael. I'm heading straight to Amazon when I'm done here...
April 8, 2009 at 8:35 PM
Alexis Romay said…
Ok! I'm buying it! Is it out already? What's the publication date?
April 9, 2009 at 11:05 AM
Anonymous said…
The website for Paris City of Night is www.pariscityofnight.com or else go to David Downie's website www.davidddownie.com and you'll be redirected to his blogsite.
April 13, 2009 at 10:44 AM
David Downie said…
http://blog.davidddownie.com/ is the new blog for Paris City of Night
April 13, 2009 at 10:46 AM
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